The first-ever drive from North to South pole is complete – and it was all-electric
After nearly nine months on the road, an all-electric Nissan Ariya has become the first vehicle ever, gas or electric, to drive all the way from North to South pole, piloted by Chris Ramsey of Plug in Adventures and his wife Julie.
The Scottish couple, who previously became the first to complete the Mongol Rally in an EV, set off from the magnetic North Pole in March in a modified Nissan Ariya, built with the help of Arctic Trucks, an Icelandic company that specializes in preparing vehicles for the most difficult conditions on Earth. The idea was to use the Ariya as a proof-of-concept for future EV mods, and potentially to eventually replace the diesel vehicles currently used for Antarctic research and expeditions.
But it’s not actually all that far off from stock – the biggest change is 39-inch tires which required modified wheel arches. Other than that, the powertrain and suspension are mostly stock (just lifted), with no gearbox change as would have been necessary on a gas or diesel vehicle. Several gear solutions were added, along with tow hitches and some frame and underbody reinforcement.
Arctic Trucks called the mod the “AT39,” but over the course of the trip, the couple adopted a new name for their Ariya: “Sonrisa,” the Spanish word for smile.
Now, in December, the couple has finally reached the South Pole after nine months and 17,000 miles of travails along the way. Nine months may seem like a long time but it was actually the original plan, a schedule necessitated by polar weather and the changing seasons – and by climate change as well.
The beginning of the trip was actually a rush job, hurrying to get the car to the North Pole and back along polar ice roads which closed abruptly this year due to melting – something that has been happening earlier and earlier lately with rising global temperatures.
The first part of the trip was constrained by needing ice in the Northern hemisphere winter, in order to even drive on ice roads that are impassable after the ice melts. And the last part of the trip relies on arriving to the South Pole in the Antarctic “warm” season, as polar expeditions are not allowed during winter when the extreme conditions at the pole become even more impossible to handle.
The original plan had been to use a trailer with a small windmill to charge the car while parked while in polar regions, but the trailer didn’t work out on Arctic roads. But for the Antarctic portion, the Ramseys have been using solar panels to help charge the car at “night” (which can be any time of day – the polar region is in constant sunlight at this time of year), in addition to using generators when the weather isn’t in their favor.
The trip through North America was relatively simple on big highways with plenty of chargers (and a quick stop to meet up with us, and the OC Tesla Club, in Long Beach), except that the Ariya was significantly less efficient after modifications. Between the huge off-road tires, fenders, and roof rack with rooftop tent, range was cut significantly.
But these range losses are part of the message that the Ramseys want to send, anyway. If they can make it all the way from one end of the globe to the other with a 150-200 mile range (down from the 272-mile rating of the Ariya), this shows that most people don’t “need” the huge range they claim they need.
After a brief trip around the uncrossable Darien Gap, it was on to a new continent. In South America there’s not nearly as much EV charging infrastructure (though Nissan dealers have provided plenty of juice), so the couple encountered several difficult situations, including broken chargers and long stretches of unpaved road. But the trip offered an opportunity to improve the region in that respect, so Pole to Pole cooperated with Enel X to install chargers along the route.
The couple visited a hybrid wind/solar farm in Chile and had plenty of new cultural experiences for a couple of Scots from the opposite side of the world.
Then it was off to Antarctica, saving the most challenging part of the trip for last. The couple met up with their pals from Arctic Trucks, who had provided support for the Arctic portion of the journey, and are also supporting the Antarctic portion. Antarctic expeditions can’t be done solo, and Arctic Trucks wanted to see how their modifications would fare in the tough conditions.
We’ve all heard that cold weather is meant to be challenging for electric vehicles, but Sonrisa has been successful at navigating temperatures down to -30º or below. But it took a little inventiveness, turning the elements in their favor by building small walls of snow to keep arctic winds from freezing the battery overnight.
The couple has also used a collapsible tent specifically for the vehicle to keep it warm while parked, which helps with charging efficiency. They’ve even occasionally parked the car inside their camp tent to share accommodations for the night, if weather conditions made setup too difficult.
Getting closer to the 90º mark, the altitude in Antarctica gets higher and higher. The South Pole itself is at 9,300ft, or 2,835m, which means that in addition to the cold, the expedition has to deal with thinner air and less oxygen. Not only is this hard on the bodies of the humans on the expedition, but fossil-powered vehicles have a hard time starting up in these conditions – a problem that the all-electric Ariya has not had any difficulty with.
And now, they’ve finally reached the pole (after some last minute encouragement from legendary soccer coach and fellow Ariya owner Pep Guardiola). The expedition actually reached the pole on Friday, but had to turn off their satellite communications when they approached the pole, so were only able to update the world about their successful finish today.
If you’d like to look back on their trip, there’s a live tracker where you can look back on some of the expedition’s updates, and the expedition’s Instagram page (@poletopoleev) has a history of all their updates since the beginning, or you can visit their linktree for more links.
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With the winter in full swing, it’s easy to spend most of the time indoors, but if you’re still looking to scratch that itch to get out and spend more time outside exploring, the XQi3 by NIU is the perfect solution to explore both trails and urban spots. On top of NIU designing the XQi3 with some great handling for off-road riding, it’s also fully street-legal.
It’s always a blast to be out in the trails enjoying nature but for urban areas, there’s usually a lot to explore and luckily the XQi3 is able to be registered as a moped. NIU has an EKHO Dealer collab that enables NIU to sell licensed and registered vehicles to customers directly, making it easy to ride off with a fully compliant street-legal bike.
Before we get into how it handles off-road let’s go through some of the quick specs.
The XQi3 has a top speed of 45 km/h for street-legal use and up to 80 km/h for off-road. Powering the bike is a removable 72v 32ah LG lithium-ion battery, which gives you a max range of 90km on a single charge, of course, that will vary depending on if you are in eco or sports mode, but it’s certainly plenty of range to explore new trails or new sites without having range anxiety, and since it is removable, you’ll be able to charge it anywhere, anytime.
Okay, now that we got some of those specs out of the way, it’s time to dive into one of the most exciting aspects about this bike which is just how great the handling feels while riding off road. This probably won’t be listed on a spec sheet but the wide grippy seat and overall design of this bike makes it very functional as an offroad bike.
NIU made this bike for riders to actually use offroad and one of the obvious signs of that is the stock skidplate that they added for more protection.
While the lightweight feel and torquey motor give a ton of confidence while riding, knowing that the bike is robust enough for this kind of riding is encouraging for trying out new sections that would normally feel intimidating.
And with that extra level of protection dropping the bike is not as worrying as you might think making it easy to pick up the bike, and continue riding just as you would on any other powersports bike.
As for the suspension the XQi3 uses adjustable front and rear KKE suspension that lets you fine-tune the compression, rebound, and preload depending on your size and what kind of riding you intend to do.
While riding through roots and loose dirt the 19-inch off-road tires hold up surprisingly well and with the tread patterns not being too aggressive it’s a great balance between traction and durability since very aggressive tread patterns typically wear out fairly quickly when using them on the tarmac.
And to brake the XQi3 features 203 mm rear disc brakes and 220 mm front disc brakes giving some great braking action for both on and off-road action.
NIU also added some great tech onto the XQi3 which includes seamless app connectivity via Bluetooth letting you unlock a world of features from monitoring your battery and vehicle status to tracking your route history.
In addition NIU is the only company in the category that has the ability to send out OTA updates.
For security the bike uses an NFC card to unlock but can also be unlocked via bluetooth.
And through your controls as well as the display you can navigate to eco or sport mode and you can also use the Ultraboost to get you up to 8000W up from the 3500W of rated power. Through the display you’ll also be able to check your battery level, speed, lap times and more.
For added safety, NIU included an emergency kill switch where if disconnected, the feature will automatically cut off power to the motor just in case of any emergency.
For those unfamiliar with NIU, the brand is now celebrating their 10 year anniversary and with that they’ve announced that the brand will be starting assembly in the US and is soon entering into the powersports segment .
Overall this is a great feeling offroad bike that is fully street-legal and comes with all the requirements to be fully compliant as a road-legal moped. I had a ton of fun exploring
With the XQi3, the premium build quality, long range, and flexibility make it a blast to go out even if it’s the middle of winter.
To check out NIU on socials you can find them @niumobility and for more of their lineup you can check out their website here.
NIU XQi3 gallery
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British telecom provider BT Group has committed to adding 3,500 new EVs to its commercial truck and van fleet over the next two years, bringing its total EV count to 8,000 units and giving it the largest electric vehicle fleet in the UK.
With more than 27,000 in its total fleet, BT Group is one of the largest operators of commercial vehicles of any kind – ICE or electric – in the UK. Now, the company says it has plans to become a fully net zero business by 2031, and looks to electrify all (or nearly all) of its vehicles over the next five years.
Company executives believe the addition of the new EVs (which will see a mix of vehicles deployed from Ford, Stellantis, Toyota, and Renault) will give it “the edge” as it aims to upgrade UK residents to full fiber internet.
“By integrating yet more electric vehicles into our operations, we are taking another significant step towards reducing our carbon footprint and supporting the UK’s transition to a greener future,” said Simon Lowth, Chief Financial Officer, BT Group. “As we extend our full fiber build from 16 million homes and businesses today to 25 million by the end of 2026, having the most efficient, sustainable electric vehicles will give our engineers the edge as they connect customers at pace to our next generation networks.”
In addition to pushing for its own carbon neutrality, BT Group is fighting the good fight – and is among a small number of large fleet operators in the UK actively supporting the nation’s proposed 2030 ban on ICE vehicles.
As such, political supporters of the ban have been quick to sing BT Group’s praises. “We want to help more businesses decarbonize their operations,” explains Lilian Greenwood, Future of Roads Minister. “(We’ve) extended our plug-in van grant with £120m funding to help roll out more zero emission vans on our roads – part of our £2.3bn to support industry and consumers switch to EVs and make the transition a success.”
Electrek’s Take
Despite all the doom, gloom, and wishful thinking from the anti-EV crowd, the numbers paint a narrative of swift expansion in the commercial EV and ZEV (Zero-Emission Vehicle) markets driven by strong incentives, up-front cost parity with ICE, and proven reductions in vehicle downtime and maintenance costs.
Expect continued growth in the commercial EV space in the months and years ahead, with virtually no going back.
SOURCE | IMAGES: BT Group, via Electrive.
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In a move that’s expected to play a crucial role in supporting the transition to medium- and heavy-duty electric vehicles, $100 million of the Biden Administration’s last-minute $635M payout is headed to Illinois to help build out an electric truck charging corridor.
While Tesla failed to secure funding for its heavy-duty electric truck chargers at the Federal level, Tesla was one of four companies – the others being Prologis, Gage Zero, and Pilot Flying J – that will be splitting the $100 million awarded by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency’s CFI program.
Tesla is understood to have requested fully 40% of the $100MM award, with Prologis requesting $60 million, Gage Zero requesting $16 million, and Pilot requesting $10 million.
The project will facilitate the construction of 345 electric truck charging ports and pull-through truck charging stalls across 14 sites throughout Illinois, with each of the awarded companies putting up some of its own money to support the infrastructure buildout as well. To that end, Prologis is expected to invest $18 million, Tesla $19 million, Gage Zero $4 million, and Pilot travel stations committing $2.5 million.
“Most of the development has happened on the coasts, and there’s nothing really happening in the Midwest, which is not great for long-haul trucking,” said Megha Lakhchaura, Illinois’ state EV officer. “We think that this hub could be of national importance.”
Lakhchaura isn’t wrong. More than 30,000 commercial trucks travel the state’s I-80 and I-90 corridor each day – and electrifying those trucks would make a huge impact in the public health and quality of life along the heavily populated roadways.
The Illinois EPA’s $100 million awards join Illinois utility ComEd’s $90 million push to build out a commercial EV charging infrastructure and encourage commercial EV adoption along the I-80/90 corridors, as well as the state’s own EV rebates for both private and company-owned battery electric vehicles.
SOURCES: TechCrunch, via Yahoo! Finance; MSN.
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